Jim Jefferies, Star of the FX Series ‘Legit’

By JEREMY EGNER

January 4, 2013

IN “Legit,” a new comedy starting Jan. 17 on FX, the comedian Jim Jefferies plays himself as an agreeable lug bumbling through his life and relationships.

The comic-gets-a-sitcom format is hardly groundbreaking, but “Everybody Loves Jim” this is not. The pilot revolves around a mission to procure a prostitute for a virginal, disabled sidekick. The episode opens with Mr. Jefferies fantasizing to another friend about impregnating a terminally ill woman: he wanted a child, but not a wife.

“I liked the idea of starting off with a vicious joke just to set the tone a little bit,” he said. “But there’s fairly mushy stuff in it as well, so it’s a good balance.”

The firmly TV-MA ethos of the show jibes with this iconoclastic comic’s act, which tends toward the graphic and irreverent. (One caustic riff on religion mocks the premise of reuniting with dead relatives in heaven: “Hello, uncle who used to touch me. How did you get up here? Oh, that’s right, you used to work for the church.”)

Jim Jefferies

Ben Morris / Corbis

But in conversation Mr. Jefferies, 35, is an affable sort with an easy laugh. A native of Sydney, Australia, he first found an audience for his comedy in Britain before moving to Los Angeles a few years ago. He has filled theaters in the United States since 2009 — when he boosted his profile with a popular HBO special, “I Swear to God” — and sold several series concepts along the way. But “Legit” is the first to make it to viewers.

Mr. Jefferies called Jeremy Egner from the set to discuss the show and reveal why it’s hard to run over a cat, even on cable. These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q. Stand-up comedy is a late-night profession. How are you adjusting to early-morning TV shoots?

A. I’m getting used to it. I’ve also got a newborn baby, so I’m not getting much sleep. My girlfriend played the prostitute in the pilot. That’s how we met. So I’ll always get to look at my son and go, “When I met your mother, I employed her as a prostitute.”

Q. That plot was taken from your act. Are all the episodes based on your stand-up?

A. Most of them. There are a few other stories that are lifted straight from my life. At the moment we’re filming one about me putting a girl in a trunk of a car, which I’ve never told onstage, but it’s a true story. I had a one-night stand with a woman who was a celebrity who was still married. The paparazzi were out front, so I put her in the trunk of my car, and I drove around the corner thinking I’d let her out, but they followed me, so she was in there for about 40 minutes until I could find a friend with a garage.

Video The new sitcom starring the comic Jim Jefferies begins on FX on Jan. 17.

Q. Who was it?

A. It was a British celebrity. But I’ve kept the secret all these years, and I’m not going to let it out now.

Q. Your comedy is pretty pointed, but on TV you need a bit of likability to keep people invested, right?

A. Also I’m playing myself. [Laughs] I’ve got to have some redeeming features.

Q. How fictionalized is it?

A. It’s more me five years ago than me today. This was pre-HBO special, when I was still playing smaller clubs. I do have a friend with muscular dystrophy who I did take to a brothel. I’m hoping that I’ve changed enough aspects of him that his mother won’t recognize him in the show.

Q. The pilot seemed pretty unrestrained. How much oversight is FX giving you in general?

A. Sometimes they go: “Don’t do this joke. Don’t do that joke.” We have an episode where a cat gets run over, and everyone panics about that. It turns out you can punch people, you can kill off a lead character in a violent way, you can say horrible things about people. But if you run over a cat or a dog, it better be really [expletive] funny.